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How I Sold $117k with a 3D Printer and My First Product — Transcript

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0:00I just hit $100,000 in revenue with my
0:02first invention and this printer in less
0:05than one year. And I didn't use overseas
0:07suppliers or paid advertising, but I did
0:09figure out five tactics that really
0:11helped me grow my business while working
0:13a full-time engineering job and starting
0:15with limited capital. So, in this video,
0:17I'm going to be sharing the five biggest
0:19lessons I learned when going from zero
0:20to $100,000 in revenue. And this stuff
0:23worked for me. So, if you've also got a
0:25product idea and want to grow faster
0:26than me, I hope this video can help you.
0:28By the way, I'm Rob. I used to do
0:30product at Apple and now I'm doing my
0:32own product business, and I'm sharing
0:33what I learned as I go. All right,
0:35lesson number one, only sell to the
0:38rich. Now, I know this sounds kind of
0:40crazy, especially with 3D printed
0:42products, but when I started, I realized
0:45I had to sell my product for a higher
0:47price for a few key reasons. The first
0:49was that at the start, I had to make and
0:51fulfill every order by myself. So, the
0:54lower the price, the more orders I got
0:56and the less time I could spend in other
0:58areas of my business, like making viral
1:00videos, but we'll get to that. It also
1:02meant that each order and customer got
1:05less and less attention because I was
1:06just trying to manufacture and fulfill
1:08as quickly as possible. And at the
1:10beginning of the business, I think it's
1:12really important to give every customer
1:13my full attention and try to surprise
1:16and delight as often as possible because
1:18with physical products like mine, I'm
1:20usually not getting recurring orders. So
1:22that means when I launch my next
1:24product, I want all my customers to
1:26remember the experience they had the
1:27first time. So then hopefully they'll
1:29want to come back. The second reason is
1:31that I didn't want to take on any debt
1:33and I didn't want to spend all the
1:34savings we have for our family getting
1:36the business started. So that meant I
1:38needed the higher profit margin to
1:40invest in more inventory and hardware,
1:42which definitely became a major
1:44constraint later on in my business. It
1:46also meant that I could spend more on
1:48perfecting high quality before
1:50increasing production quantities. like
1:51it gave me a lot of room to make the
1:53product experience really cool for
1:54customers with things like custom
1:56packaging and more premium materials.
1:59These are the things that I didn't
2:00realize had a lot more perceived value
2:02to a customer and made everything feel
2:04really high value.
2:07Look at that.
2:09I couldn't find a term for this, so I'm
2:11coining the phrase hybrid products where
2:14basically you take a lower value product
2:16that's just made of something simple
2:18like a plastic material and then you
2:20combine it with more premium materials
2:22and it elevates the entire product for
2:24the end user. You'll find this kind of
2:26all over consumer products where they
2:28put a piece of metal around the areas
2:29where people touch and interact. And I
2:32found that if I was going to be selling
2:33to higher value customers that I needed
2:35to increase the perceived value as much
2:38as possible throughout the entire
2:39development. Also, people have to be
2:41able to see and feel the materials. It's
2:44a big reason I left the magnets showing
2:47instead of covering them. I'm not
2:49exactly sure why, but I also love seeing
2:52the components. At least that's what I
2:54found. And lastly, these are the
2:57customers I want. They are the most
2:59understanding and supportive when it
3:01comes to new businesses. And if I messed
3:03up, which I did a ton, the amount of
3:05money spent mattered a lot less to them
3:07than if I were to take someone's last
3:10$100. It just gave me some breathing
3:11room during the early stages of getting
3:13my legs under me. And I can always go
3:15back and make new lower tiered offers
3:18later, but it's much more difficult to
3:20increase the prices after I already
3:22started. Trust me on that one. But that
3:24leads me to lesson number two. And the
3:27number one most asked question I get.
3:29How did I get the customers in the first
3:32place? That was the biggest lesson I
3:34learned through this whole process and
3:35the one that took the most amount of
3:37time and effort to learn. Basically, it
3:40came down to two options. Do it the
3:42cheap and hard way through content or do
3:44it the expensive and hard way through
3:46ads. Now, what do I mean by that?
3:48Basically, I needed to find a way to
3:50show my product to potential customers.
3:52And if you're watching this video, it
3:53probably means that you're like me and
3:55don't want to spend the money upfront
3:57for paid advertising, which is kind of
3:59the standard way of selling a product.
4:01Well, like many, I didn't want to spend
4:03all my savings trying to see if people
4:05wanted my product just to find out that
4:07they didn't. So, here was my hypothesis.
4:09If I recorded short form videos weekly
4:12throughout the prototyping stage of my
4:13business and shared each design hurdle I
4:16overcame on YouTube, then I could build
4:17an audience slashc customer base that
4:20was part of the journey as I went and
4:22kind of gauge people's interest from the
4:24start. This was great because it taught
4:25me the most important lesson I learned
4:27as an engineer turned business owner.
4:30Marketing is much harder than product
4:32design. Now, not for everyone, but for
4:35people like me who have an idea and want
4:37to make it, well, we think it's cool and
4:40then people will just find it and buy
4:42it. But I learned it is much more
4:44difficult to actually get people's
4:46attention than it is to make a great
4:48product, especially at first. That's why
4:51I think this short form method is so
4:53valuable. Like, I can make content, get
4:55feedback as I go, and get to participate
4:58in what I like to call the triple dipper
5:00revenue stream, TM. Basically, instead
5:03of paying Meta to push my product to
5:05people, I made the same video I'd make
5:07as an ad and then I could post it to
5:09YouTube. And three things happened.
5:11First, I got paid AdSense after I got
5:14monetized. So, basically, YouTube is
5:16paying me to advertise my product.
5:18Second, I get customers who either want
5:20to buy it now if it's available or are
5:23willing to sign up for my email wait
5:24list. And third, after growing an
5:26audience, I could take on sponsors. I'll
5:28show you an example in a little bit, but
5:30it's crazy. like other companies
5:32sponsoring my company as I build my
5:35company. I'm also avoiding spending the
5:38marketing budget on ad platforms like
5:40Meta until later when I I'm really ready
5:42to expand. Like by then I'll have saved
5:45all my AdSense money from YouTube and
5:47can use that as my advertising budget
5:50later on. This is one of the untapped
5:52product launch strategies I'm going to
5:54test out and really go all in on in the
5:56next year because I think platforms are
5:58still incentivized to push viral product
5:59videos to people who are interested in
6:01them. I found more so on YouTube than
6:03Tik Tok, but still YouTube was a great
6:06way to help alleviate the R&D startup
6:08costs I had at the beginning. From a
6:10business finance perspective, this has
6:12been one of the biggest levers I've
6:14found as a smaller business who doesn't
6:16want to take on debt or grow too fast. I
6:18also mentioned customer feedback which
6:20is the other critical part needed
6:22especially with a physical product. This
6:24is the biggest data point I got from
6:26short form content because it basically
6:28gave me some direction if people want my
6:30product and also it helped me iterate
6:32and prioritize any changes I needed to
6:35make to the product along the way. And
6:37for those of you who are worried about
6:38patents, I just decided to post it. And
6:41my thought was if it's a good idea,
6:43maybe someone will steal it. But by
6:45then, I've built a loyal customer base
6:47who would rather buy it from me than the
6:49knockoff version. Not only that, but if
6:51someday I do end up needing to defend
6:53one of my products from a knockoff, I've
6:55got like hundreds of videos with dates
6:57showing what I was working on before
6:59anyone else, a lot of evidence if I ever
7:01need it. I guess I actually was knocked
7:03off a couple times already, and it
7:05helped me improve my product and gave me
7:07a ton of free content. Not to mention,
7:09the people who watch from the start are
7:11pretty loyal because they know how much
7:12effort I put into the thing from the
7:14beginning. At this small size, it's not
7:16something I'm going to worry about yet.
7:17I've looked into provisional patents and
7:19will probably just apply at some point,
7:21but I just didn't want to let that stop
7:22me from getting started. But that's it
7:24for the content portion. If you want me
7:26to do a more in-depth video on content
7:28strategy, just let me know in the
7:29comments because I left a lot out of
7:31here just for time sake. Anyways, that
7:34leads me to lesson number three. Should
7:35I even sell a physical product or should
7:37I just sell the digital files? Well, I
7:40did a ton of research on both because I
7:42had the same question and where I landed
7:44was there really isn't a right or wrong
7:47answer with either. It just comes down
7:48to preferences of what I like to do and
7:51what I'm trying to build. The general
7:52feedback I got when talking to creators
7:54who sell digital files is that they
7:56loved it because they didn't want to do
7:58all the logistics, packing, shipping,
8:01customer returns, but they also didn't
8:03really mind spending a lot more time in
8:05CAD, making new novel designs every week
8:07and maintaining a membership community
8:09like Fangs. Basically, it's where people
8:11pay like five or 10 bucks a month to
8:13access all your files, but will only
8:15continue to pay if you keep releasing
8:17new designs. So, if you've got a lot of
8:19good designs and want to pursue that, I
8:21wouldn't say it's a bad idea. But for
8:23me, here are the reasons I picked
8:25physical products. First is that I don't
8:27think I can crank out a new highquality
8:29product every week because it's just not
8:31how I operate. I spend way too long
8:34perfecting and I need it to be, you
8:35know, ready to sell on store shelves.
8:38But the second is that I think there's a
8:40limit to scaling the memberships long
8:42term just because of the customer base
8:44who own 3D printers and I want to build
8:46a bigger business eventually. So I think
8:48selling products is a bigger market to
8:50capture and it's also the vehicle I
8:52chose because it's what I like and what
8:53I'm good at. It does come with a bunch
8:56of downsides though, especially at the
8:58beginning. Like all the headaches people
9:00talk about with e-commerce are very
9:02real. For example, we moved across the
9:04country and instead of just doing
9:06business for my laptop, I had to make a
9:08ton of inventory and then [music] pack
9:10it into the car for our cross country
9:12road trip. We are packing the remainder
9:15of the orders from Saturday and Sunday,
9:19which was insane because we got caught
9:21in a wildfire and a hail stom. We got
9:24robbed at a gas station, but if I wanted
9:27to keep a business going, I still had to
9:29pack and ship orders as we went. I also
9:32learned that my genius packaging design
9:34everyone loves so much ended up being a
9:36huge headache because like 10% of orders
9:40got lost since the bottles would roll
9:42off the conveyors and get stuck places.
9:44Also, I had to figure out how to turn on
9:47international shipping, which had so
9:48many nuances with taxes and import
9:51issues. There's some really good YouTube
9:53videos out there that cover this stuff,
9:54so I won't go too into depth on it, but
9:56yeah, physical products have a lot of
9:58their own issues. So, if you're stuck
10:01between the two options, just be sure to
10:03think critically about what you're
10:04trying to build and the lifestyle you
10:06want to make. I don't know. But that
10:08leads me directly into lesson number
10:10four. Which platform should I sell on?
10:13So, I learned that the industry standard
10:15for physical product sales is just to
10:17use Shopify. Yes, the sponsor of every
10:20YouTube video except for mine because
10:22you can link to almost every other
10:24platform from there like Etsy, Amazon,
10:26Tik Tok. But should you link them is the
10:28question. At first, I thought yes.
10:31Obviously, why wouldn't I get free
10:32orders from different places? So, I
10:34started on Shopify with YouTube only,
10:37which worked great because my viewers
10:39would just click the link on my video
10:41and it would go straight to my store.
10:42But then I added Tik Tok shop, which I
10:45heard was awesome and viral and I
10:48started to get some sales there, which
10:50felt great. But I realized the customers
10:53were not what I was used to. Tik Tok is
10:56really a deal platform where shoppers
10:58want the best deal with a huge discount
11:00and it's very impulse purchase driven.
11:02For some products, that is perfect, but
11:04for mine, it was too high priced and
11:07caused that customer base to be less
11:09satisfied than the people who had been
11:11following my videos along the entire
11:12way. It was a big lesson learned because
11:14I thought all customers were the same,
11:16but some require a lot more effort. I
11:19also learned that Tik Tok itself is a
11:21bit difficult to sell on because they
11:23have so many rules around the amount of
11:25time it takes to ship. Time to reply to
11:28messages from customers, spam messages,
11:31ratings, all these things just took way
11:33more time and were really difficult to
11:35manage when I was first starting. For
11:37more established companies who have
11:38people that do these things, it makes
11:40sense. But when platforms have short
11:42time constraints, it makes it really
11:44stressful and difficult to focus on
11:46other areas of the business. The other
11:48platform I learned to shy away from
11:50after talking to a bunch of product
11:52creators was Etsy. Not for the same
11:53reason as Tik Tok. Actually, Etsy
11:55customers are great. But the platform
11:57has one big flaw when it comes to
11:59products, and that's knockoffs. Etsy
12:01shows people how many sales each product
12:04has, which is great for the customer
12:06because there's some social proof that
12:08the product is good. It's really bad for
12:10sellers because it means people and
12:12companies just scrape which products
12:15have the highest sales so they can make
12:17a copy and then spend more on paid ads
12:20to rank higher. It's a similar problem
12:22you see with Amazon and why a lot of
12:24people have issues selling on these
12:25platforms when they're small because
12:27they can't spend enough to rank high and
12:30eventually just get cannibalized by
12:32copycats. The other reason I've been
12:33mainly sticking to Shopify at this early
12:35stage is because most other platforms
12:38won't give you customer emails or
12:40information. So, you don't really know
12:42the demographics you're selling to. And
12:44for future products, I can't even send a
12:46follow-up email saying thank you or
12:48anything like that. The other issue was
12:50when customers had issues with shipments
12:52or products. It was way harder to send a
12:54replacement because platforms like Tik
12:56Tok wouldn't even give me a shipping
12:58address. So, for me, I've been mostly
13:00sticking to Shopify because it's all I
13:02can really manage by myself for now. I'm
13:05sure I'll explore expanding again soon,
13:07but for now, manufacturing is more of a
13:09constraint than selling. But speaking of
13:12manufacturing, let's talk about lesson
13:14five. Should I outsource or just build
13:18my own print farm? Now, I worked in
13:20manufacturing for years, so I have a
13:22visceral reaction when people tell me I
13:24should make my own factory. This is
13:26obviously a personal opinion, but I did
13:28contemplate starting my own print farm
13:30versus outsourcing. And here's what I
13:32learned. Some people really love the
13:34idea of having everything in house. Kind
13:35of like Tesla. They can design,
13:38prototype, and produce all from one
13:40spot. If anything goes wrong, they can
13:42troubleshoot in real time. And they
13:44never have to worry about the quality
13:46logistics headaches that come with
13:47outsourcing. There are some more
13:49constraints you need to overcome though,
13:51like physical space, printer costs, new
13:54technology updates, employees. But I
13:57went to the school of hard knocks at
13:58Apple and I've come to love the set of
14:01problems that come with outsourced
14:02manufacturers. Here are some of the pain
14:04points I really had to pay attention to
14:06before I chose a manufacturing partner.
14:08The first, once I got some traction, I
14:11started to get a ton of inbound people
14:13saying they can produce for me. I tested
14:15almost 15 smaller shops and five larger
14:19shops, and the quality concerns were
14:21really high at the majority of them, but
14:23I'd still recommend going with a smaller
14:25partner at first because at least
14:27they're willing to work with me through
14:28all the issues. I also learned that 3D
14:31print manufacturers are not optimized
14:33for really high quality as much as
14:35they're optimized for high quantity,
14:37which for many products is fine, but for
14:39me, choosing to go high-end meant that
14:41my quality had to be insane and much
14:44higher than what's standard. That's why
14:46I make sure all the print firms I work
14:48with use bamboo printers exclusively.
14:51Now, earlier I mentioned that part of my
14:53business has become sponsorship. So,
14:54what I did was I made a big list of all
14:56the products I've used so far that have
14:58helped me in my business, and those are
15:00the only sponsors I actually want to
15:02work with. Lucky for me, my business
15:04allows me to be a bit more selective
15:06with who I actually do work with, so I
15:08can be sure that I'm only promoting
15:09products I really do love. So, that's
15:11why I'm excited that I get to share with
15:13you guys my first long- form sponsorship
15:15with Bamboo Labs. Let me know in the
15:17comments what you think of it because
15:18I'd like to get better at them over
15:20time. But since we're talking about
15:21manufacturing, it's worth talking about
15:23how I prototype and what I'm using to
15:25continue to improve my products. There's
15:27a lot of 3D printer companies out there,
15:29but if you're like me and just want
15:30something that works perfectly out of
15:32the box without doing a ton of research,
15:35this is my exact setup. My main printer
15:38is the X1C because I like the
15:39touchcreen, but I also think it just
15:42looks really nice. I also have two P1S's
15:44for when I need a few things going at
15:46once. And now Bamboo sent me their new
15:48H2S so that I can make much larger
15:50models like this massive Iris box.
15:53Overall, the quality benchmarks are
15:54about equal for all of them. So, you can
15:56kind of pick whichever is best for you.
15:57But if you have the budget and space,
15:59I'd recommend getting the H2S because it
16:01provides the same quality as the smaller
16:03printers, but it's 30% faster and it
16:05gives flexibility if you need to ramp up
16:07production. This way, you won't have to
16:09upgrade again later when you need more
16:11capacity as your sales grow. It's also
16:13helpful that their printers are below 50
16:15dB since they're all in the office where
16:17I'm recording and working all day long.
16:19Also, before I start outsourcing, I like
16:20to make as many of my own products as
16:22possible to work out any of the bugs.
16:24And this larger format increases my
16:26in-house production output by like
16:28double because of the size of the print
16:30bed. Also, its ability to feed multiple
16:33materials if needed. But I think the
16:35biggest reason it's worth looking into
16:36them is that it's sort of become the
16:38industry standard. So, if you do end up
16:40outsourcing, you can just ask the
16:42supplier what machines they use. And if
16:44it's bamboo, which it probably is, you
16:47can kind of guarantee that the prints
16:49you've been making at home will be
16:50exactly the same quality as the prints
16:52they're making for you. Unlike these
16:55prints that I got from a supplier who
16:57was not using bamboo printers. Also,
16:59because with their cloud-based system,
17:01you can use any of your devices and
17:03export your entire build plate and send
17:05them this 3MF file and require that they
17:08don't deviate. A lot of times, you'll
17:10send a design file to a supplier and in
17:12order to reduce production time or save
17:14on material cost, vendors might tweak
17:16settings for supports and print times,
17:18which can definitely lead to a drop in
17:20quality. Like for my upcoming Iris box,
17:22I wanted to use the ironing function for
17:24a few parts so the top's really smooth,
17:26but this adds extra print time that a
17:28vendor might not typically want to
17:29support. This stuff matters a ton when
17:31you're trying to scale and grow. So,
17:33thanks again to Bamboo for helping me
17:34build my business and get it off the
17:36ground. And if you're thinking about
17:37launching your own product or even want
17:39to start just prototyping, I'd recommend
17:42checking them out with the link in my
17:44description. Now, back to more of my
17:46manufacturing headaches. One thing I did
17:48and I'd recommend is to do as many
17:50sample runs as you can and slowly
17:53increase your batch order size instead
17:55of ordering in bulk up front because
17:57most shops aren't built for a massive
17:59order all at once and it will break down
18:02most of their quality practices. The
18:04other thing is if you've got a product
18:05like mine that requires assembly, this
18:08is where both quality and price become a
18:10huge part of the higherend products.
18:12With 3D printing, you're going to get a
18:15lot more rejected parts and assembly
18:17errors than with a normal injection
18:19molded manufacturing company because
18:20every machine is different. And it's
18:22much more difficult to replicate parts
18:24each time. And also, 3D print houses are
18:27not built like a classic manufacturer
18:29who's used to assembling. It requires
18:31people who are trained, clear work
18:33instructions, and a lot of iterations
18:36before you can get a fully outsourced
18:37product. For my first $100,000, I did
18:40the majority of it myself with just
18:42three printers and manual tools, but I
18:45was trying to outsource the whole time
18:47because I just couldn't scale. And
18:49eventually, I found a few partners
18:50willing to deal with my OCD level
18:52pickiness. But you need to account for a
18:55big percentage of your profit margin to
18:56be taken by outsourcing, too. Compared
18:58to doing it yourself, it's going to be
19:00double or triple your cost because they
19:02have a lot more overhead to run the
19:04print forms than you do. It took me
19:06almost a full year before I could get
19:08consistent pricing and quality. And I'm
19:10still doing most of the checks myself.
19:12So once I figure that out, I'll make a
19:14different video update. But if you're
19:15stuck between starting a print form or
19:17outsourcing, it's sort of the same deal
19:19as the digital file discussion. Pick
19:21which one you like and want to spend
19:23time on because if you're like me and
19:25want this to be full-time, then you're
19:27going to spend a lot of time doing
19:29whichever path you pick. But before we
19:32end this video, I want to quickly share
19:34three mini lessons I'm going to test
19:36with my next product launch. The first
19:38is saving content to post as I get
19:41closer to launching because I think
19:42it'll help drive more conversions cuz
19:44not all videos will be product
19:46iterations and so I think it's worth
19:48saving some that could be more viral to
19:50help collect more of those sales. Second
19:53is I'm going to be testing pre-orders
19:54versus email weight list because I think
19:57a lot of people don't check their email
19:58consistently and still want to support.
20:00I also could try something like
20:02Kickstarter, but I just haven't done
20:03enough research yet to know which is
20:05better combined with content. [music]
20:07And lastly, I'd recommend reducing the
20:09number of SKs or options you have for
20:12sale, especially as a team of one
20:14because it becomes a nightmare to manage
20:16everyone's orders and it's very
20:18difficult to build a system that scales
20:20with like 100 different product
20:22offerings. That said, I won't be
20:25following that last piece of advice
20:26because I enjoy the pain of limited
20:28runs. So, for anyone interested in my
20:30next product launch, the Iris Box, I'm
20:32going to be opening up the first 250
20:34orders to have custom colors and
20:36materials so I can see what people like
20:38best. Thanks for your support. Thanks
20:40for watching. Catch you next time.

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This page contains the full transcript of How I Sold $117k with a 3D Printer and My First Product by Fiction Products, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 4,247 words across 600 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

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